Benchmarks extend losses; Realty, HC drags

Indian equities continued to trade weak in the late morning session. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red at this point of time on growth concerns ahead of the third-quarter corporate earnings season, lifting the safe-haven dollar which in turn undermined commodities. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in, Realty, HC and Oil & Gas sector while selling was witnessed in Bankex, CD and CG sector. Unitech, Oberoi Realty, Indiabulls Real Estate, Sobha Developers and Godrej Properties from Realty pack were seen trading in green edging the markets higher. Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceuticals and Divi's Laboratories from HC pack were seen trading firm in green. Banking majors - ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bank of Baroda and IndusInd Bank were capping the markets’ gains. While, CD majors Titan Industries, Rajesh Exports, Gitanjali Gems, TTK Prestige and Blue Star too were pressurizing the markets.

In the scrip specific development, DQ Entertainment gained on entering into an agreement with Foothill Europe.  RBNL rose on launching next leg of campaign ‘Choose Your Pack Wisely’. Unity Infraprojects edged higher on securing orders aggregating Rs 315.80 crore.  Reliance Industrial Infra soared on reporting 3.74% jump in Q2 net profit. GE Shipping surged as its subsidiary takes delivery of ‘Greatship Rachna’

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,650 and 18600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1225:852.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18631.60 down by 43.58 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 18690.99 and 18600.66. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.26% and Small cap index was up by 0.72%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Realty up by 0.79%, HC up by 0.52%, Oil & Gas up by 0.26%, Power up by 0.21% and FMCG up by 0.02%, were the top gainers. While, Bankex down by 0.55%, CD down by 0.52% CG down by 0.31%, PSU down by 0.20% and TECk down by 0.18% were the top losers.The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 1.00%, Hindalco Industries up by 0.98%, Cipla up by 0.85%, RIL up by 0.57% and Dr Reddys Lab up by 0.56%. On the other hand, Gail India down by 1.13%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.10%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.00%, BHEL down by 0.75% and Coal India down by 0.75 % was only the loser on the Sensex.  

Meanwhile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) is mulling to clear about 50 FDI proposals including those of Larsen & Toubro and Mahindra Group at its meeting on October 19, 2012. In the last meeting, the FIPB had approved 14 proposals of FDI total to Rs 113.35 crore. The FIPB’s green signal to various FDI proposals is the renewed efforts by the government to attract private investments.

According to the scheme, out of the total 49 proposals, 16 are fresh and 19 are those on which decisions were deferred in the previous meetings of the Board. The 6 proposals include those of Mahindra and Mahindra and Larsen & Toubro which relate to defence production and 3 to the telecommunications sector. As India permits FDI in most of the segments through automatic route, the FIPB clears those proposals which are related to sensitive sectors like defence and telecom.

In recent times, the government liberalized its FDI policy in the multi-brand retail and aviation sector. In addition to that the government would be seeking Parliament’s approval to raise foreign investment upper limit in the insurance sector to 49% from 26%.

 The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,663.50, down by 12.55 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 5,676.85 and 5,651.05. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 declines while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ranbaxy up by 1.29%, JP Associates up by 1.03%, Bajaj-Auto up by 0.90%, Ambuja Cement up by 0.88% and Power Grid was up by 0.83%. While, GAIL down by 1.38%, Maruti down by 1.21%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.09%,  BHEL down by 0.94% and Kotak Bank  down by 0.85% were the losers on the index

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in the red; Kospi Composite was down by 0.46%, Shanghai Composite was down by 0.51%, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.40% Hang Seng was down by 0.09%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.14%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.17% while Nikkei 225 was up by 0.47%, Straits Times was up by 0.47% were the gainers.